Ella squirmed. “I maybe, last time, helped him, but he did it mostly himself. And this time, he kind of just climbed out after I woke him up and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.”
With a heavy sigh, Anna said, “Great. I was waiting for that.”
Ella looked up at her, visible relief across her features. “You were? I’m not in trouble?”
“Not really, missy. It’s normal he’d learn to get out.”
Kym wrapped her arms around Ella and tickled her. “It’s a good thing. You just helped the process, Ella.”
Pushing at Kym’s fingers and giggling, Ella’s eyes glinted with mischief. “I’m his big sister. I like teaching him to get into trouble.”
There were times like this where Anna was grateful that somehow, Ella had still stayed Ella after her parents’ death. More contemplative, quieter at times, but still her. She squeezed Ella’s knee. “That’s true. Well, lucky for you, Toby’s present is about that.”
“What did you get him?”
“Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe we should have breakfast before we do presents.”
Ella shook her head, and Toby sat up, interested in the conversation now that a word he knew well had been mentioned. Ella gave her a pleading look. “No, Aunty Na, presents. Please.”
Never in the history of pleases had there ever been such an elongated one.
Looking from Anna to Ella and back, Toby then pushed off Lane’s stomach, making her groan loudly in protest as a little knee sunk in. He ended up on Anna’s lap and knelt in it, smiling, dimples prominent. “Na, pease?”
Anna wrapped him up in her arms and scooted to the edge of the bed, standing up and moving him onto her hip. “All right! Everyone to the guest room.”
Easily scooting off the bed, Ella said very seriously, “Don’t be silly; it’s Kym’s room.”
With a groan, Kym followed Ella out. “Kym’s room?” She huffed. “I need to get me a life.”
A pillow hit her in the back, and Kym turned to glare at Lane. With a shrug, Lane grinned. “Just move in and admit defeat, Kym.”
“That’s rich.”
“Excuse me?” Lane asked. “What was that?”
Kym smirked. “That’s rich, directed at me, the woman who barely sleeps here anymore, from the woman who probably can’t remember the last time she slept two nights in a row at her own apartment.”
“I—but, you—oh, shut up.”
“Hm. Nice comeback.”
They followed Anna, Ella, and Toby to the guest room. After sliding a squirming and delighted Toby to the ground, Anna joined the others in watching him run the few steps to the bed they had assembled in there to keep it hidden from him when he woke up.
He stopped at the end and stared, taking in the Thomas the Tank Engine toddler bed. It was bright blue and red and in the shape of Thomas, and Anna quite possibly had spent a lot more money on it than she should have for a bed that would last him five years at a maximum.
Though right then, the look of utter delight on his face made it worth it. A knot formed in her stomach as she watched his bright eyes, so reminiscent of her brother’s, as they stared in utterly transparent disbelief.
“Happy birthday, Toby!” they all said together. Ella was bouncing and looked just as happy as Toby.
“Cool!”
Turning to look at Anna, Toby asked, “Mine?”
Anna nodded. “It’s all for you, Toby. A big-boy bed.”
With his eyes back on the bed, he ran his hand over the wide Thomas face. Slowly, the smile disappeared from his lips. He looked from the bed to Anna. As one, they all stood aside while he walked past them and stared down the hallway. He looked down, then back at his new bed, then down the hall again.
Eventually, he focussed back on Anna. “Bed!” He looked to the Thomas bed and pointed at it. “Mine?”
And finally it clicked.
He was looking at her as if she was a crazy lady putting his bed in the wrong room. Easily, she scooped him up to her hip. “I know; it’s in the guest room.”
Ella’s voice chimed in. “Kym’s room!”
With a nod, Anna said, “Right. Sorry, Ella—Kym’s room.”
“Oi!”
“It’s in Kym’s room so it would be a surprise,” she told him, acting as if she hadn’t heard Kym. “We’ll move it into your room after your party, okay?”
For a moment, he eyed her, until a grin plastered on his face. “Toby’s bed!”
The lisp on his s was cuter than it should have been. Her brother had lisped for years.